“SNAKE IN THE SOUP”

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17453, 30 December 1930, Page 6

“SNAKE IN THE SOUP”

AND COMING OF CHOLERA ' - MISSION OUTBREAK EXPLAINED A story that 41 bays of the London Mission uoarcunginouse at Erode had died and many more weie ill from eatsuuh into which it was believed a aiiake had lailen, was cabled from Delhi eariy tins month. A later message slaved that cholera was the cause. Altss luglts, ALA., of the .London Mission at Erode, Sou in India, is at present on furlougn in New Zealand, and an extract •roiu a letter of hers is interesting in view of these cabled reports:— "Every year about November epidemics of cholera, piague, and smallpox, oreak out around us m Erode and many other places, ”■ she says. "The burning Indian sun acts as a disinfectant for. most of the year, and the time of greatest heat and dryness is ordinarily a healthy time. When good rain falls, however, 6r skies are overcast, in isepiember and October, diseases are rite, and the total ignorance of the people of the Taws of hygiene and sanitation have tlieir natural consequences. In the Cauvery River, not two miles from Erode, the people bathe, wash their clothes, and drink the water, cholera or no cholera, and the results may be imagined. "in Erode the missionaries’ bungalows, the hospital, the boys’ home, and the girls’ home are all in one largie compound, and, needless to say, we teach and enforce the observance of the strictest rules of cleanliness and hygiene. As a result we are almost entirely free from these epidemics, even though they are rife in trie town. Moreover, where plague or cholera are present nearby in epidemic form, the missionaries use their influence to induce all the Christians nearby to become inoculated; and we generally lead off by offering ourselves first for inoculation, and theh all the boys and .girls in our care. With all these precautions it is difficult to see how cholera can have broken out in the home. Asiatic cholera, however, is very sudden and very deadly in its effects!* arid it is possible that, with some outside infection and 50 of the 130 boyS attacked at. once., two-thirds of them were in extremis before anything much could be done for them.

“The story of the ‘snake in the soup’ is one of the usual Indian yarns which get about with extraordinary rapidity when anything out of the way happens, It is just possible, however, that through the careless use of copper vessels, which need to he tinned regularly and constantly, there has been metallic poisoning. Tho symptoms of this are much the same as those of cholera.

“The cable I received stated that the outbreak was, one of cholera, and has been staved. It was a terrible occurrence, and one calculated to produce a great , scare in all il\e villages round about within a radius of 30 miles, from which our bo vs come.”